Doing it with a plough might work, but copper is a lot more robust than fibre (especially for fairly vague definitions of connection quality). Running it alongside the power lines is probably the most cost effective way to do the planning, but you still have to pay someone to go up the pole and add another one. Again, you're not saving a huge percentage by already having the poles (probably enough to pick it over trenching though). Long-haul fibre can span transoceanic distances. If you have dispersion-compensating segments you can get it up to a few hundred km without significant bandwidth loss on the to-the-home scale.
Fine. How much would you like to go and dig a trench across 100 km of sun-scorched dirt? Oh, and it has to be properly done - not just buried, but surveyed and ducted, and flood proof, and bushfire proof, and wombat proof (no I'm not kidding, the little buggers dig like mad). The cost of the fibre is, in comparison, bugger all. It's the cost of laying it that makes the difference between fibre and satellite as the best choice to Farmer Trev.
Good thing Windows doesn't make a clicking sound every time you press a key.
The first Microsoft Natural keyboards came with "Intellitype" software. It included a function that made Windows (3.1) do exactly that - play a 'click' sound every time you pressed a key.
Break it down into two blocks. 1) You need some software on the computer that listens to a port (serial, USB, whatever) and shuts down the computer on command. if (data_from_port == magicnumber) `shutdown -h now`; or something like that. 2) You need a device that generates said signal in response to whatever external stimulus you want. As another poster said, UPSs do this all the time. There's quite a bit of information on this available on the web, it's a popular high school/hobbyist electronics project (not shutting down necessarily but once you've got it printing a message to the screen, shutting down is a trivial extension).
Actually they're dead easy to make. Get a digital potentiometer (variable resistor) and connect it as a current source. Hook your LED up to the current source and there you have it. If you want schematics, try this article.
That's a fair question. I'd define a patent as a limited term of exclusive rights to a novel invention in return for publishing the details. The point where I think the current system breaks down is the "novel" part, and to a lesser extent the "details" part. As for controlling the number, I disagree - there's no number of patents which is too many, provided that they expire. If there's not enough freedom for competitors to operate because minor modifications are making it through the patent system, that's a separate issue and not a result of "too many patents".
The headline draws rather a long bow. I think that what's clear from this report is that the current patent system is broken and stifling innovation. However, this does not invalidate the very concept of a patent, which the article summary suggests is the case. "Current orthodoxy claims patents encourage innovation, by allowing developers to enjoy profitable monopolies on their inventions which in turn inspire them to create new inventions" - this is still true. It's the current implementation of the "profitable monopoly" that is causing issues.
No, it's actually a good thing. Just tell them that you were recently given a point fifty dollar per hour pay increase, but you only got point five, so you need the extra point forty-five. Then repeat until you run out of payroll innumerates.
From the "Movies Suck" article referenced above (which is completely made up and was published in March):
For the near future, studios are rushing to raise the suck level in existing franchises. [...] The film rights to The Hobbit have been wrestled from Peter Jackson and given to George Lucas.
I agree, the magnitude of the problem is small - after all, 200 kg on a 747 is only 0.5 kg per person. You could save that just by stopping people bringing their bottled water on board... hey. But regardless, sometimes it's worth the tradeoff. The classical example is USAAF bombers towards the end of the Second World War - they got rid of the paint to get a bit more altitude. I also found reference to a JAL jumbo that had some sort of special gaudy paint job to celebrate something, but they didn't want to keep it because it was twice as heavy as the regular paint job. It all comes down to cost-benefit, of course, but the point is that if there's a zero cost-per-mile alternative to paint the airlines will jump on it. Blackening the surface with a laser isn't that alternative for commercial airliners (it'd make for a fairly boring looking plane). If you could come up with a coloured version, though - that would be useful.
All this suggests that consumers looking for bargain gifts may opt for less-expensive gadgets such as cell phones, digital music players, video phones or noise-cancelling headphones.
Noise-cancelling headphones? Yes, I can see it now... "I was thinking of buying a new PC, but I heard the battery can explode, so instead I'll buy noise-cancelling headphones".
The following text is from Polar Star, by Martin Cruz Smith.
The grandsons of the Revolution spoke plodding, measured Russian, as if each word were so many centimetres that, when carefully laid end to end, would inevitably lead to consensus, and spoken politely and soberly because it was the genius of Soviet democracy that all meetings should reach comradely unanimity. Say a worker came before a factory committee and pointed out that they were turning out cars with three wheels, or told a farm committee they were turning out calves with two heads. Such news never stopped a calm, experienced committee from marching in single formation.
It has happened before, you know, and it's usually due to climate change. If you look at the last billion years or so it's relatively common for the largest marine species to all die out in a fairly short time. For some reason sharks always seem to survive.
Immigration doesn't affect world population, you know. Saying that you think there's too many humans isn't racist. Neither is being against unfettered immigration. However, saying that you want to limit immigration to avoid overpopulation is pure racism. It means that you want less of the "bad" kind of people proportionally. I agree with you that we need less people. The answer is to reduce birthrates worldwide, but then you run into entrenched religious interests and everything gets rather sticky.
Slashdot Mirror
Doing it with a plough might work, but copper is a lot more robust than fibre (especially for fairly vague definitions of connection quality). Running it alongside the power lines is probably the most cost effective way to do the planning, but you still have to pay someone to go up the pole and add another one. Again, you're not saving a huge percentage by already having the poles (probably enough to pick it over trenching though). Long-haul fibre can span transoceanic distances. If you have dispersion-compensating segments you can get it up to a few hundred km without significant bandwidth loss on the to-the-home scale.
Fine. How much would you like to go and dig a trench across 100 km of sun-scorched dirt? Oh, and it has to be properly done - not just buried, but surveyed and ducted, and flood proof, and bushfire proof, and wombat proof (no I'm not kidding, the little buggers dig like mad). The cost of the fibre is, in comparison, bugger all. It's the cost of laying it that makes the difference between fibre and satellite as the best choice to Farmer Trev.
To answer your questions: Yes. Yes. Marketing.
Yahoo and Hotmail do that already, by appending an advert to any email you send.
Good thing Windows doesn't make a clicking sound every time you press a key.
The first Microsoft Natural keyboards came with "Intellitype" software. It included a function that made Windows (3.1) do exactly that - play a 'click' sound every time you pressed a key.
I didn't realise the Kindle was made by Apple.
The new ones don't.
Break it down into two blocks. 1) You need some software on the computer that listens to a port (serial, USB, whatever) and shuts down the computer on command. if (data_from_port == magicnumber) `shutdown -h now`; or something like that. 2) You need a device that generates said signal in response to whatever external stimulus you want. As another poster said, UPSs do this all the time. There's quite a bit of information on this available on the web, it's a popular high school/hobbyist electronics project (not shutting down necessarily but once you've got it printing a message to the screen, shutting down is a trivial extension).
Actually they're dead easy to make. Get a digital potentiometer (variable resistor) and connect it as a current source. Hook your LED up to the current source and there you have it. If you want schematics, try this article.
Did Verisign pioneer it? I seem to recall that Microsoft's "feature" came before Verisign tried to do it universally.
That's a fair question. I'd define a patent as a limited term of exclusive rights to a novel invention in return for publishing the details. The point where I think the current system breaks down is the "novel" part, and to a lesser extent the "details" part. As for controlling the number, I disagree - there's no number of patents which is too many, provided that they expire. If there's not enough freedom for competitors to operate because minor modifications are making it through the patent system, that's a separate issue and not a result of "too many patents".
The headline draws rather a long bow. I think that what's clear from this report is that the current patent system is broken and stifling innovation. However, this does not invalidate the very concept of a patent, which the article summary suggests is the case. "Current orthodoxy claims patents encourage innovation, by allowing developers to enjoy profitable monopolies on their inventions which in turn inspire them to create new inventions" - this is still true. It's the current implementation of the "profitable monopoly" that is causing issues.
No, it's actually a good thing. Just tell them that you were recently given a point fifty dollar per hour pay increase, but you only got point five, so you need the extra point forty-five. Then repeat until you run out of payroll innumerates.
From the "Movies Suck" article referenced above (which is completely made up and was published in March):
Oh dear...
I wouldn't be standing too close to a busy road if a large percentage of drivers are talking on their cellphones.
Storage is merely transmission (forward) through time. Bandwidth applies just as much as to any other form of transmission.
Remember Robert X Cringely's dictum about Microsoft - the third product is always the real one. The first two are just to scope out the market.
I agree, the magnitude of the problem is small - after all, 200 kg on a 747 is only 0.5 kg per person. You could save that just by stopping people bringing their bottled water on board... hey. But regardless, sometimes it's worth the tradeoff. The classical example is USAAF bombers towards the end of the Second World War - they got rid of the paint to get a bit more altitude. I also found reference to a JAL jumbo that had some sort of special gaudy paint job to celebrate something, but they didn't want to keep it because it was twice as heavy as the regular paint job. It all comes down to cost-benefit, of course, but the point is that if there's a zero cost-per-mile alternative to paint the airlines will jump on it. Blackening the surface with a laser isn't that alternative for commercial airliners (it'd make for a fairly boring looking plane). If you could come up with a coloured version, though - that would be useful.
Paint is also heavy - a couple of hundred kilograms for an airliner, and almost a tonne for a B52.
Could you have found a more annoying, ad-infested site to link to? Must have searched for a while. Try this one instead: http://www.gorobotics.net/The-News/Military/South- Korea-Develops-Machine%11Gun-Sentry-Robot/
What a great chance to find out. Go on... give it a go.
Noise-cancelling headphones? Yes, I can see it now... "I was thinking of buying a new PC, but I heard the battery can explode, so instead I'll buy noise-cancelling headphones".
The following text is from Polar Star, by Martin Cruz Smith.
Sounds awfully familiar.
It has happened before, you know, and it's usually due to climate change. If you look at the last billion years or so it's relatively common for the largest marine species to all die out in a fairly short time. For some reason sharks always seem to survive.
Immigration doesn't affect world population, you know. Saying that you think there's too many humans isn't racist. Neither is being against unfettered immigration. However, saying that you want to limit immigration to avoid overpopulation is pure racism. It means that you want less of the "bad" kind of people proportionally. I agree with you that we need less people. The answer is to reduce birthrates worldwide, but then you run into entrenched religious interests and everything gets rather sticky.